Live Blogging the Saline Board of Education Meeting, Aug. 5, 2020

Principal Update

Laura Washington becomes Saline Middle School Principal. Megan DeGrand becomes principal at Heritage.

Kenyatta Hughes becomes principal of Pleasant Ridge. Musetta Deneen becomes assistant principal at Heritage School.

Graden Introducing the Connected Learning Plan

• In-person learning is the end goal. That doesn't mean we aren't concerned about a safe environment for students in staff.
• School district is leaning heavily on the Washtenaw County Health Department and other agencies for guidance.
• Device opportunities, access to the Internet, food resources, transportation and other needs are going to be critical for the district. We are connecting families in need to the districts.
• There are two options. Option one is gradual in-person learning. Option two is distance learning.
• The district is developing at COVID-19 metrics that will be used for deciding whether or not to go in-class, or leave in-class.
• Online learning will be more robust this fall. Taught be Saline teachers. Using Seesaw LMS and Google classroom.
• Families will decide by taking a survey between Aug. 6-9.
• The first week of school will not have class. Time will be spent readying for virtual instruction. Virtual instruction is Sept. 8 to Sept. 25.
• If local COVID-19 conditions are OK and Saline is Region 5/6, in-person learning will begin for those students with rotating days in-person. This would start Sept. 28 in a best-case scenario.
• Info will be available through School Messenger and posted on the Saline Schools website's Return to Learn Page. The Let's Talk app is also a communication tool. Follow the district's social media pages.
• 500 staff members took part in webinars Monday. Building staff meetings start Thursday and Friday. 
• Once school starts, all COVID-19 contact situations acted on using Health Department guidelines.
• Lunch time will be different. 
• Masks on and assigned seats on school buses. Windows down.
• Limited building access, so there's less volunteering.
• Maximum outside air being brought in by the HVAC. Open Windows in schools.
• Bond money has upgraded heating and cooling systems. Some districts can't upgrade to the MERV 13 filters like Saline did.
• Daily screen students by families. Self-screening by staff members prior to entering the building.
• All students and staff will wear masks in the school setting. Saline will error on the side of going beyond that and will wear masks throughout the day. There could be "mask breaks" outside during recess or outdoor lunch.
• Training of students and staff on how to wear masks. Social distancing/hand-washing. Implementation of PPE equipment in accordance with CDC and health department guidelines.
• Cohort models. Classrooms will stay together. Assemblies, lunches and groups will not happen. Specials (art/music) will be different.
• Social emotional wellness is critical - but we can't compromise the physical environment. 
• Special populations. There will be challenges. There will be opportunities for small groups. We need to find ways to accommodate IEPs.
• They are developing a hotline for technical issues for people working from home. Hot spots will continue around the schools.
• Little Stars child care starts Aug. 24. Community Ed will notify the public by Aug. 14 about child care, before and after care, and Hornet Homeroom options. Programs should be running Aug. 31.
• Food packages will continue until school starts. When instruction begins, virtual learners can still receive meals through the food service program.
• Walk zones will be expanded. There are local subs close to the elementary. We are going to be short drivers. We are going to ask families who want and need transportation to commit. If you change your mind, there may be delays in accommodating your request. The district wants to limit contacts.

Questions from the Board of Ed

Steben:  Can you talk about accommodating students changing after a trimester. Graden: At the high school level, in-person to virtual probably is relatively seamless. At the elementary level it might not be as easy. There may be new classmates and a different teacher.

Steben: Have you considered maximum occupancy for classes? Graden: Yes. There are questions in the virtual and in-person maximums. At the school level is, can we do what the Phase 4 roadmap restrictions call for? We're going to learn about what it looks like. Things may look differently at elementary vs secondary level. 

Steben: What about A/B transitions and siblings. Graden: It's an alphabet A/B concept. Siblings will be on the same day. Secondary is a challenge with multiple class levels and grade levels.

Estep: A/B day question. Graden: There's 5 days virtual, 5 days in-person over a two-week period. At the elementary, half the class in person and half the class doing asynchronous learning outside the class. In a two-day window, you'll get an at home lesson and in-person lesson. At the secondary level, the concept is different. Instruction is in-person. 

Graden: Community Ed may provide in-school child care for students during the A/B period.

Estep:  Will there be assessing of the two options, so we don't have equity issues? Graden:  We know there will need to be calibrating our instruction. The currency of the day if you're a teacher now is building a long learning management platform. What strategies develop connectedness, support social-emotional wellness? Our staff will have to learn a lot about where they at. It's daunting, but I'm confident our staff can do it. We can learn from other districts.

Estep: About DEI, have you considered about race? Gender identity? Providing extra support? Do we need anti-harassment, bullying, non-discrimination policies for a virtual environment. Graden: We are training all staff on issues of equity. It's occurring Aug. 27 for all staff. Our curriculum content is changing to represent different populations.  Student behavior outside the walls of the campus can have an impact on our school learning environment. We put a stake in the ground earlier this year and don't intend to waiver on that.

Estep: How do we support staff members?70 percent are not comfortable going back to the classroom.  Graden:  Everyone is anxious. Our work is done in our buildings. Our buildings will be safe.

Hynek: Concerns about screen time. Will there be standards?  Graden: We are developing a synchronous and asynchronous model. The virtual model includes daily contact (video) with staff. The expectation level for distance learning will require more screen time than last year. We've not developed standards on screen time.

Valenti: Compliment Scot and the staff on providing choices for the families. Many districts don't have that choice. For this to work, this is on all of us as a community to make this work and abide by CDC guidelines.

Valenti: What about a student who wants to take welding but do everything else in distant learning. Graden: Some career tech is hands-on. Dr. Rowe has talked to superintendents in the district. Those courses are unique. Those facilities often lend themselves to social distance. There may be a way to carve out CTE programming as fitting into special populations program. Reach out to Dr. Rowe. We want to accommodate family's unique needs. Right now we are overwhelmed around by the planning process. We need a cadence to our decision-making structure to allow us to have the right answer. None of us are going to have enough information to feel great about our decision. But we're going to have pick paths.

Pfannes: Are you going to develop a spot on the website to answer questions and group them by commonality? Graden: Yes. The return-to-learn page and FAQ on the school website. Building level Zoom meetings will generate grade-level specific themes. 

Austin: In-person is very important for a lot of different reasons. I like the idea of not starting day one, five-days-a-week. I like the slow roll into the protocols. 

Austin: Child care? Is it fee-based? Is this something we are going to cover? Graden: It's fee-based. We do have programs for families in need. The costs associated with that are different.

Graden: We need local information (data) about health and safety that's different from what we've seen. 

McVey: What about the students with highest needs? The ones who have difficulty wearing masks? Graden: We need PPE. We need tight strategies and protocols. 

McVey: Buses. Some kids ride three-to-a-seat. I can't imagine cracking windows in November? Do we have more buses? Graden: We can buy more buses. We can't find drivers. Bus drivers are concerned about their health. Some ideas are every-other-seat. Cohorting. Putting neighbors who've already been together in "pods." If a student is sick, not getting on the bus is very important. Screening is very important. We are going to ask families if you don't need, you need to let us know.

McVey: What about substitute teachers? What about new triggers on "what is sick?" Graden. Those are nuanced things that keep us up at night. How do we have continuity of operations? Can a teacher with a stomach issue still provide virtual instruction?  A lot of districts will be in-person a month before we start. We're going to learn a lot from other schools.

McVey: School calendar days? Graden: There are a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to days/hours and accounting. The plans need to be fully funded.

McVey: Seesaw is not robust. Graden: If there was a perfect LMS, we'd adopt it. We want to be flexible and supportive of our staff. A staff member passionate about their LMS is passionate about doing distance learning right.  We need to learn about communication cadence with families look like when we take it up several notches from the spring.

Hynek: Can community ed run Zoom classes to help families learn about online learning tools? Graden: Yes. It's coming. (not sure he said it was coming from Community Ed, though).

Pfannes: Windows down on the buses, that means all winter, right? Dressing warm? Graden: If we're in phase four, windows will be down.

Pfannes: Sports, music and extracurriculars. Have there been discussions? Graden:  With band, orchestra and choir, we've talked with the staff. We have concerns about what that looks like. The aerosol issue with choir and band is problematic. We are having marching band camp outside. I don't want to say we are not offering those programs. But we're asking, how can we do it safely? We have traveling staff, who go from building to building. We're not how to make sure our staff don't need to travel. Some teachers might get remoted into other buildings. Music may look different at Heritage this year. We are going to ask for patience. On Sports, the MHSAA provides specific guidance. We can do outdoor activities more safely. There's a day coming when contact with teammates or opponents is coming and they've not yet provided guidance on that. Those opportunities to connect and be part of team or participate in extracurriculars have been critical. It's been a lifeblood for some students. We will work hard to offer safely. On extra-curriculars, we're prepared to offer as many as possible outside school or in small groups.

Steben: Active shooter drills and tornado drills and things that force students into small spaces. Graden: We've asked for guidance from the Michigan Department of Education.

Steben: Enforcement on masks? What if a student loses it? Are there masks at school? And temperatures? Graden: We will enforce it. We are not messing around. We want to be back in person.  A person not wearing is willful insubordination. You're jeopardizing the safety of students and staff. Will we work with students who can't wear masks? Yes. We will have disposable masks available. If you're getting on a bus, you're wearing a mask. On temperature checks, we are not allowed to do random checks. It's considered an invasion of privacy. If we have reason to believe a student has a fever, then we will check temperatures. We will have a first-response approach when there's a potential illness, with temporary quarantine rooms and plan for exiting the building.

Steben: How about attendance for students and staff? Graden: Physical attendance is not something overly worried about. We're worried about are they completing tasks and engaging with the teacher. From a staff perspective, we've had a number of conversations. We are talking about what sick days look like with the SEA (teachers union).

Steben: Around the new schools with new admin, what's being done there to support those buildings through this transition? Graden: Laura has spent a better part of her career in the middle school. Megan is at Heritage. At Pleasant Ridge, Steve Laatsch and I are committed to helping Kenyatta.

Estep: How will you monitor self-monitoring? Graden: We would need some type of trigger before investigating. Community norms are important. We can't ship kids to school if they're not feeling well. That cannot happen. We need to model that as adults.

Estep: Will we check? Would we require student to self-quarantine until they are tested? Graden: Does a student need to get tested every time they get sick? We've not received guidance yet. Based on what we saw this summer, probably not. But we're going to have a specific answer before students go back to school. This is where it's a community partnership. Our collective behavior will dictate whether or not we return to school.

Estep: Will there be support of teachers who need child care? Graden: We do not have a system to support faculty for child care. We're not using to use child care as a money maker.

Estep: When will we have a draft of the plans? Will there be a presentation on the Return to Learn plan? Graden:  The PRP is a compliance document. 

Public Comment

Cameron Crawford: There has been a lack of student involvement until I got involved. A majority of my peers don't have Facebook, or use Facebook (where the district has had interviews). Why are parents the main demographic? Leaving student voice out of the conversation is not helpful.

Megan Gunnerson: Most of my questions were not answered. Not all my children responded the same to virtual learning. A lot of parents had the same questions I did. Our deadline is Aug. 9 (for choosing in person or online). It's important to be as educated as possible prior to making the choice.

Tiffanie Alexander:  Some board members are responsive to emails, others never respond. Talking about Laura Washington in the middle school. The candidates and process were public and transparent. I don't recall her being one of those candidates. I don't understand why there wasn't transparency and input. It makes me concerned. About masks and smaller kids. What about little kids struggling with masks?

Jennifer Miller: Thank Scot and the team that put the plan together and for being flexible. Hope teachers will feel comfortable contacting you as the plan is rolled out. I'm still wondering about classes selected that might be in-person only on only online.  I hope the board and admin consider purchasing PPE for staff.

Laura Moorman: I've heard a lot about trying to return face-to-face. We're most likely going to go virtual. I want more information about what a virtual day is going to look like. I don't feel I have enough info about the virtual plan to make a decision at this point.

Chris Wall: For in-person to work, we need online to work. If we don't have enough students online, I don't see how CDC guidelines can be met for in-person. Safety is a key. Once kids pick in-person or online, does it create a stigma, us vs. them. I encourage you to think about that. I am concerned about the hybrid phase. I can see that being a nightmare for teachers to manage. The social interaction is important in the online option.

Brandy Wood: The job you are doing is amazing. I'm down to my last student in the high school. I can't attend the webinar with principal Raft Friday. Some districts at the HS level, rather than rotate five times a day, they are group and making periods longer, so only rotating 2-3 times a day. It's more consistent with it's done at college.

Melissa Bridges: With the temperature issue and an temperature checks. It's something it needs to be done to protect teachers, administrators and students and parents at home. They need to be temperature checked before they get on the bus and before they walk in the building.

Kate Harkless: I have three children in the district. I hope I will see more details about virtual instruction. Effective virtual instruction is more than uploading documents. We hope to learn more about professional development teachers will receive on virtual learning. Interested in different instruction for exceptional learners.

Darcy Berwick:  If our child does not to be in school fulltime to graduate, can they take fewer credits, and drop a class or two? Will we know the class schedules before we make the decision about online or in-person?

Steph Schineman: For full-time parents, is there a time kids have to log-on for learning? 

Kristi Towel: Thank you for the work you've done. I've been in Saline for two years, and I can tell you Scot, you are a gem. My daughter has Down Syndrome. It's very important we know ASAP we know what our children's day's will look like. If continuing into October and November, we need outside services, which means insurance and paperwork and interviewing tutors. Those are not things we can decide by Aug. 9. 

Julie Steele: How does schools of choice play into the plans? Potential for an influx of schools who may want to participate in the in-person option?

Haleh Ghalambor: As the parents get closer to the decision, can you define synchronous vs asynchronous? Will virtual students be zooming into the same sessions as the in-person students?

Tara McQueen: Next gen classrooms were great for learning, but not great for COVID. Also concerned about taking off masks at lunchtime. I was hoping for more information about what the learning plans might look like.

Heather Shorkey: My older daughters graduated from Saline. I have a middle schooler and elementary schooler. Their colleges have moved dates to avoid a Thanksgiving Day/holiday spreads of COVID-19.

Jessica Goniea: How will you handle a situation where a split or divorce family handles different options (online vs in-person)? What does the law support?

Ann Jeffers: Maybe some parents a particular learning mode is best for their child, but maybe come October or November things are working out. What interventions are going to be in place to get the child back on path?

Public Comment Closes at 8:50 p.m.

President Pfannes encouraged parents to participate in building-level Zoom meetings to have questions answered.

Meeting adjourned at 8:52 p.m.

More News from Saline

• Saline City Council Chooses Dan Swallow as City Manager Swallow, a Saline resident, has been the city manager in Tecumseh for 10 years.
• Emagine Entertainment Offers Free Movies to School Employees on Wednesdays in July Educators are encouraged to stop by their favorite Emagine theater location on Wednesdays from July 9 – July 30, 2025, to receive one free movie ticket.